Energy costs are continually rising. In such times, the last thing you’d want is warm air spurting out of your home’s garage. A great way to prevent this air leakage is garage door insulation. There are a number of reasons to insulate a garage door. First and foremost, if you spend a considerable amount of time in the garage then garage door insulation makes perfect sense. Garage door insulation can make your life in the garage quieter, cooler and warmer. Furthermore, it lowers your energy bills, brightens up your garage and prevents the street noise from entering your garage.

You can either perform the garage door insulation yourself or hire a trained technician for this job. However, before we go deeper into that, let’s take a look at the garage door insulation types available to you. There are three different types of garage door insulation: Batt insulation, reflective insulation and foam-board insulation. Each insulation type is equally energy efficient and will help you to lower your energy costs. Let’s now a take a detailed look at each insulation type.

Batt insulation

Often fitted into exterior walls, Batt insulation is flexible and commonly made of fiberglass. A foil or paper usually backs this insulation. Air barriers and vapor are what the foil or paper act as. R-3 to R-4 are the thickness per inch insulating values.

Foam Board insulation

Typically made from polystyrene, foam board insulation includes rigid panels. For relatively little thickness, these panels provide an inflated insulating value. 1/ inch to 1 inch are the thickness per inch insulating values of these panels. Often, vinyl or aluminum is what foam board is faced with.

Reflective insulation

Applied to one or both insulation materials sides, highly reflective aluminum foil is what reflective insulation rolls or rigid boards have. Usually, polyethylene bubbles and cardboard are the insulation materials. Radiant heat is reflected by this type of garage door insulation. This makes it ideal for garages that heat up in hot climates or summer. Depending on how you apply it, the R-value of this insulation is approximately 3.5 to 6.

In case you choose to carry out garage door insulation yourself, you’ll need to perform three steps. This includes gathering the required materials, measuring and cutting and applying finishing touches. Let’s suppose you choose foam board insulation. Now, the things you’ll require include a foil-faced foam board, a knife/ blade and a measuring tape. Once you gathered the required tool, measure the size of each door frame panel and follow the appropriate process.

While performing garage door insulation yourself is possible, you shouldn’t perform it unless it’s your last resort. Instead, you should opt for the safer and more garage door insulation effective option i.e. hiring a trained technician to carry out insulation. By doing this, you’ll avoid incurring unnecessary cost and will ensure that you get all the benefits of garage door insulation.